About Elena Iv - Skaya

Elena Iv-Skaya (✝ 2025) was a photographic artist with a rich and brilliantly radiant colour palette. She staged her subjects in strong poses and even stronger contrasts, giving full expression to her vision of beauty and joie de vivre.… Read more

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Work Info

In her Selection series, Elena Iv-Skay captures her female protagonists from a fascinating perspective, using striking poses and vibrant colors. She constructs captivating and exotic backdrops for the women in focus, who are always the focal point of her work. Elena Iv-Skaya herself was involved in the modeling industry before becoming an internationally renowned photographer.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Elena Iv-Skaya (✝ 2025) was a photographic artist with a rich and brilliantly radiant colour palette. She staged her subjects in strong poses and even stronger contrasts, giving full expression to her vision of beauty and joie de vivre. Her colours function as amplifiers of the positive energy and powerful personalities that define Iv-Skaya's work. She combined forceful portrayals with an easy, summery lightness to create compositions that feel genuinely inviting.

Before she moved behind the camera, Iv-Skaya had stood in front of it: her years as a model made her intimately familiar with the world she would later photograph. She brought that knowledge and experience into a dialogue with her subjects — one that allowed her to realise her ideas while engaging them as equals. It was this collaborative approach that enabled her to capture the inner grace and strength of her women in a way entirely her own. Each of her works has its own character, its own fascination.

Elena Iv-Skaya was born in Russia and spent her final years on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. There, the vivid colours and elegant forms of the natural world became a constant source of inspiration. The island fed her work again and again — its tropical elements, paradisiacal settings, and sweeping backdrops providing the stage for her models. Blue skies, palm trees, and turquoise water became defining constants in a varied portfolio that invites us to travel, in our minds, to these extraordinary places.

INTERVIEW

When did you become interested in art? How did it all begin?
I have always been interested in art but mostly as a viewer, the realization that I can create my own art came much later, when about 10 years ago I started experimenting with an old camera photographing objects of interesting shapes against the sunset backgrounds, or flowers and then my friends. I was told
quite soon after that that my photos were interesting and original and I decided to pursue and learn more about photography.

How would you describe your work process?
My work process is quite spontaneous. I love to be inspired on the go, during the shoot. I have some ideas about what I want to do beforehand, but they really develop only when I start shooting, I just need to have a choice of accessories that I can play with to create the color schemes and graphic compositions characteristic of my work.

Who inspires you?
I find inspiration in the works of David Hockney, Guy Bourdin, Norman Parkinson, René Magritte, Man Ray and even my favorite impressionnistes like Matisse, Van Gogh, Gaugin.

Which artists/works of art are you particularly impressed with at the moment?
I love the work of the Spanish fashion photographer Txema Yeste.
What distinguishes a good work of art?
The ability to attract the viewer's attention in the immense volume of visual stimuli that the world is filled by at the moment and produce a pleasurable aesthetic impact.

What project are you working on at the moment?
I have recently moved to Geneva from Reunion island where I created many of my seaside and poolside series, I would like to create a similar aesthetic result in the mountains with snow and colorful accessories on the ski theme.

What is the purpose of art?
To give the viewer a feeling of aesthetic enjoyment and gratification, to empower the sense of beauty and inspire the best in them.
 
Does art bring about happiness?
Of course, when you look at works of art that fill you with aesthetic joy and pleasure it makes you happy.